Are these poplar's non-native species or native cottonwoods specific to the region? I would have much less queasiness of the use of GE trees if they were native species, but introducing GE non-natives to a region just sounds like a recipe for a disaster. Especially after seeing your escaped GE grass link. I've been following the GE chestnut news over the last decade and generally support that and have kind of started to just accept GE in crop plants because I cannot do anything about it now and it seems to be in almost every product these days, but GE plants for carbon capture? Eh, I don't know that I can get on board. Is the goal to turn over these crops on a 10-20 year basis? It seems like you would want to plant them and not log them for maximum carbon uptake, but maybe I need to do more reading on the subject.
It's a poplar hybrid -- from what I understand, a very common stock for tree genetic research. So not native! Their hope is to transfer the same trait into other species; they're starting with loblolly pine but haven't had success yet. And any future efforts will be regulated under new rules.
The contracts require the trees stay in the ground for around 30 years, I believe. Then they can be harvested. Living Carbon points out that if they grow as large as projected, they're liable to be used for timber, rather than paper or pulp, which means most of the carbon will remain stored out of the atmosphere. But Living Carbon says they're now focused on projects that are unlikely to be harvested at all -- mostly reforestation projects atop abandoned mine land in Appalachia.
Interesting. Well, if they can get the GE loblolly to work then I think that would likely be worth the effort for the reforestation efforts on abandoned mines, I would hate to see them reforest those areas with non-native hybrids. Now I guess I'll go down the rabbit hole of more reading on the subject!
Are these poplar's non-native species or native cottonwoods specific to the region? I would have much less queasiness of the use of GE trees if they were native species, but introducing GE non-natives to a region just sounds like a recipe for a disaster. Especially after seeing your escaped GE grass link. I've been following the GE chestnut news over the last decade and generally support that and have kind of started to just accept GE in crop plants because I cannot do anything about it now and it seems to be in almost every product these days, but GE plants for carbon capture? Eh, I don't know that I can get on board. Is the goal to turn over these crops on a 10-20 year basis? It seems like you would want to plant them and not log them for maximum carbon uptake, but maybe I need to do more reading on the subject.
Thanks for bringing this subject up!
It's a poplar hybrid -- from what I understand, a very common stock for tree genetic research. So not native! Their hope is to transfer the same trait into other species; they're starting with loblolly pine but haven't had success yet. And any future efforts will be regulated under new rules.
The contracts require the trees stay in the ground for around 30 years, I believe. Then they can be harvested. Living Carbon points out that if they grow as large as projected, they're liable to be used for timber, rather than paper or pulp, which means most of the carbon will remain stored out of the atmosphere. But Living Carbon says they're now focused on projects that are unlikely to be harvested at all -- mostly reforestation projects atop abandoned mine land in Appalachia.
Interesting. Well, if they can get the GE loblolly to work then I think that would likely be worth the effort for the reforestation efforts on abandoned mines, I would hate to see them reforest those areas with non-native hybrids. Now I guess I'll go down the rabbit hole of more reading on the subject!